http://www.loc.gov/mods/v3 http://www.loc.gov/standards/mods/v3/mods-3-2.xsd
Discrimination of effective, average, and ineffective upper-intermediate and secondary schools from ratings of school characteristics by parents, students, teachers, and principals
xiv, 187 leaves : illustrations ; 28 cm.
This study explored the discriminant power of parents', students', teachers', and principals' perceptions of school characteristics to differentiate between effective, average, and ineffective upper-intermediate and secondary schools and the effect of schools' socioeconomic status (SES) and grade level (i.e., upper-intermediate versus secondary schools) in variance discrimination. The sample consisted of 88 schools classified as effective, average, or ineffective through a simple regression analysis regressing students' total reading standard score on the Norm-Referenced Assessment Program for Texas (NAPT) on percentage of students per school that qualified for free or reduced school lunch. Studentized residuals were calculated to classify schools as effective, average, or ineffective. Parents', students', teachers', and principals' perceptions on a set of seven effective schools characteristics were collected using The Effective Schools Survey (1992). Multivariate analysis of variance was utilized to analyze the data. Several descriptive discriminant analysis were performed to investigate the discriminant power of parents', students', teachers', and principals' perceptions of school characteristics to differentiate between effective, average, and ineffective schools. Forward statewide discriminant analysis was utilized to examine changes in the discriminant power of variables in relation to SES or grade level and possible interactions. Results evidenced that: (a) only the perceptions of students, teachers, and principals discriminated effective and average schools from ineffective schools, (b) across respondent groups, safe and orderly environment, opportunity to learn/time on task, and high expectations were the factors that contributed more to school discrimination, and (3) the contextual variables of SES and grade level were not significant. There was a significant interaction between SES and teachers' expectations, which demonstrated that teachers from effective schools had higher expectations for students than those of average and ineffective schools. Expectations varied according to students' SES; expectations were higher in schools that had a low percentage of students in free or reduced lunch and decreased as the percentage of students in free or reduced lunch increased. Practical implications for implementation, policy development, and future research are discussed.
"Major Subject: Educational Psychology".
Issued also on microfiche from University Microfilm Inc.
Includes bibliographical references (leaves 113-123).